Designing how organisations deliver for customers
Many teams and leaders are under pressure to deliver more, better, faster, with less. While the reality is that delivery feels harder than it should.
There can be many reasons for this - capability gaps, lack of prioritisation, unclear strategy, low morale. The most consistent issue is a lack of focus on how the organisation creates value for customers, and how this translates into delivery.
In previous posts, I’ve written about why operating models should start from delivery, and the invisible systems that power it. This piece joins those up to look at what that means for how organisations are designed to deliver.
At an organisation-wide level, the opportunity is to treat the operating model as a delivery system working in service of the customer experience.
When we step back and look at the organisation as a delivery system, something changes. The focus shifts to how the organisation is set up to deliver products and services that achieve outcomes.
It begins with the front stage.
Who the organisation is serving. What customers are trying to do. And how products and services deliver value to them. Looking at this end-to-end often reveals how delivery really connects - and where it doesn’t.
For most organisations, this is a moment of clarity. Seeing how the customer experience connects, or fails to, makes it clear why there’s failure demand, inefficiency, or slow delivery.
If the front stage is what customers experience, the back stage is what makes it possible.
Platforms, processes, capabilities, policies, funding models, and ways of working. These are the internal mechanics that shape how delivery happens day to day.
These systems are not neutral. When they are made visible, it becomes clear how much they shape outcomes for customers. Some support delivery. Others quietly undermine it.
Designing the organisation as a delivery system means making these internal mechanics enabling and intentional. It means shaping the operating model so it supports the customer experience, rather than reflecting artificial internal structures and functional boundaries.
The most transformational step you can take is to make delivery the centre of your organisation. Not because it matters more than customers, but because it keeps everyone focused on what they are doing to serve customers.
Of course, a model of your organisation’s operation is no magic fix. But without a foundational shared picture of how your operations need to support your products and services, and how those need to enable the customer experience, delivery at scale will be disjointed and directionless.
A better operating model is one that is deliberately designed to enable delivery. Delivery is how outcomes are achieved and customer experience is created.